Retail Notebook: Flower Power Salon takes a groovy approach to business

By ANDREA JAMES, P-I REPORTER

Published 10:00 pm, Friday, November 10, 2006

It's OK to laugh too loud at Flower Power Salon. And if you don't know the difference between a bang trim and a partial foil, the employees will fill you in -- no judgment.

The Green Lake salon is pretty unpretentious. Heck, you can even take your dog.

Owner CeeCee McCray wants it that way. When she first rented the drafty old space in 1995, she thought, "I can work with it."

"I like that it wasn't all laminated and black and white and -- at the time -- what was really hip and trendy," she said. "I like that it was kind of rustic and old and suited this area -- kind of funky."

An endless stream of kittens and pooches push past the smiley-face beads on the front door of the shop, which McCray uses to foster animals for the Meow Cat Rescue in Kirkland.

Pictures of beautiful women with thick hair -- "color that shines" -- hang next to animal rights posters. One features a leopard that "needs her fur more than you do."

McCray sells Aveda products because they aren't tested on animals, she said.

Over the past decade, McCray has filled the salon with personal touches: quilts on the upper walls to mute the echo, antique wood furniture that belonged to her grandmother, a horseshoe over the door and lots of hippielike flowers.

In summer, she operates a bubble machine out front.

"I just wanted to do my own thing, I guess," said the 45-year-old hairdresser and business owner with flaming red hair.

But the salon might not be in the same Green Lake location much longer.

"We're going to have to move when they flatten our building," McCray said. "They're tearing everything around down for condos. This area has a lot of character, but I don't think it will for long."

When that happens, she'll try to find another spot at Green Lake, she said.

Though the shop looks like a slumber-party pampering haven, men are welcome, too.

"Only guys just wander in and look for haircuts," she said, laughing, after one man walked in last week. "Most women make appointments."

McCray personally has more than 200 active clients, and her five employees are responsible for developing a client base of hundreds more. The shop brings in around $240,000 in sales per year -- equivalent to almost 6,900 haircuts. Services range from the $10 lip wax to a $145 "ultimate package" of facial, cut, styling and makeup.

She admits she has no clue about finances and has hired an accountant to help her with such details as the difference between revenue and profit.

"It was really hard -- it was scary -- taxes and all that type of stuff," she said of starting the business.

Her husband, Jim Keller, of radio station KNDD-FM, also doubles as Flower Power's maintenance man.

"It's a struggle financially," she said. "My goal is just to make sure the employees are paid."

Still, life can't get much better.

"I'm walking to my own business, and I can set my own hours. I can do the things that are important to me," she said. That includes helping animals, but not for a living.

"I need that glamorous end, too," she said. "I like making people happy."